Tamil Nadu’s new breakfast scheme in schools

Source: The post is based on the article “Tamil Nadu’s new breakfast scheme in schools” published in The Hindu on 16th September 2022.

What is the News?

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister has launched the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme for students of Class I to V in government schools. 

What is the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme?

Launched by: Tamil Nadu

Aim: To encourage more children to continue to come to school and help prevent dropouts at the primary level.  

Features: Under the scheme, children in government schools from Class I to Class V will get nutritious breakfast provided in their schools every morning. 

– The menu of breakfast includes rava upma, semiya upma with sambar, rava khichdi, semiya khichdi and rava Pongal. The breakfast will be served from Monday to Friday. A dessert will also be served to students on Fridays, which will be either Rava kesari or semiya kesari.

Note: Tamil Nadu has been the pioneer of the midday meal scheme as the first initiative to provide meals to children had been taken by the erstwhile Madras Municipal Corporation around 1920. 

– In post-Independence India, Tamil Nadu was again the pioneer, with Chief Minister K Kamaraj rolling out a school feeding scheme in 1956. 

– This scheme was later emulated by the union government in the shape of what’s today known as the midday meal scheme.